Illustrator ®: Swirl / Floral / Embellish Symbols

Swirl / Flourish Symbols for Illustrator, PC MAC

Swirl / embellish symbols for Illustrator - opening

How to open the swirl symbols ? They are standard AI files - they can be opened via the "file menu" and "open command" by selecting the swirl.ai file etc or if you want to use them as symbols then open them via the symbols palette. The symbols palette right side has a menu which offers a selection of powerful command to replace or duplicate etc symbols as well as open a symbols file.

Symbol presets folder for Illustrator and floral designs

If you place the swirls symbols files in the symbols presets folder (this is in the program files adobe illustrator folder on the PC or the Adobe Illustrator folder in the software folder on the MAC) then the swirls / embellish files will be accessible via the dropdown found at the side of the Illustrator symbols palette. If the symbols are not located in the symbol presets folder, you will have to use the browse feature found in that menu to search for the AI files (personally I prefer to look for the swirl / floral etc symbols by the library and rarely add the item to the list)

Floral symbols and symbol palette for Illustrator

Once open, the swirls / embellish symbols are displayed in their own library - they are not, as yet, symbols for use in Illustrator. You cannot edit the symbols in a library, they are read only. Click a symbol in the symbol library and then the symbol will be added to the current document's symbol palette

Transforming swirl / floral shapes in Illustrator

Once loaded into the symbol palette, you can now drag the floral / swirl symbol to the document / artboard and use throughout Illustrator. The embellishment symbol shape is a vector and can be re-sized and transformed easily using the various scale / rotate tools in Illustrator. You can also use the shear tool to further modify the shape.

If you want to do more dramatic transformation then you have to expand the path or edit the symbol in isolation mode or apply a transformation using a live effect.

Editing the swirl / floral symbols in isolation mode in Illustrator

If you edit the symbol in isolation mode you can modify the design in many different ways, as you would any path. You can apply perspective, change the color etc of the shape. If you want to preserve a copy of the symbol then I would suggest duplicating the symbols (again via the symbol palette) and then working on the copy. As soon as you leave the isolation mode all other copies as well as the symbol itself in the palette will be updated with the new look. The original source symbol in the symbol library, which is read only, is unaffected.

Converting floral shapes into standard paths in Illustrator

The easiest way though to modify the symbol is to just turn the swirl symbol into a basic swirl path. You can then modify the swirl shape in countless ways as well as export to other software. You can, if you wish, once you have applied all the changes to the swirl shape, just save it as a symbol again by dragging the completed swirl shape into the symbol palette. If you are editing the shape in the source file for the swirls then the design can be saved for use in countless other projects as well. Use the expand command to convert the symbol to a path.

3D swirl / floral shapes in Illustrator

If you want to turn the swirl symbol into a 3D design then you can via the "effect menu" and "3D sub menu" and "extrude". It is perhaps not the world's greatest 3D, personally I prefer a proper 3D application or perhaps something like Photoshop Extended or Xara Designer 6. Still, you can modify the 3D effect, the angle, the depth, perspective, bevel etc as well as shading. You can also add a symbol to the various faces (though some of the shapes include 100+ faces it is not the easiest tool to add an additional texture to the 3D embellish symbol) via the map art command. More options are available to modify the 3D swirl shape such as different surface settings, ambient light, highlight intensity as well as lighting.

Live effects and floral shapes in Illustrator

The floral / swirl symbols can also be edited and modified without changing the actual symbol - this is by using live effects and transformations as well as other effects such as tweak, punk and bloat etc - you can apply all range of wonderful effects to the floral designs and this will not alter the symbol found in the symbol palette - it alters only the floral symbol instance. Also by going to the appearance palette, you can select any of the live effects and delete them or by clicking on the effect, change them.

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Date modified: April 11th, 2012

Creating plugins and presets since 1995. Privacy - no details sent to third parties. After buying the swirl / floral symbols packs for use in Illustrator, you receive the download link from shareit.com (secure sales). The set is a zip file and contains the floral / swirl designs in AI format along with other format files and documentation and a gallery showing all the floral designs. A serial number is also included for future updates. Unique items, The floral / swirl symbols are for commercial use (see our license link at the top of the page to see some examples of possible use of the swirl designs). All the symbols are totally royalty-free, no credit is required for their use, also the use can be world-wide with no time limits as well as no limits on the number of uses in any project. .